PSYC 1010 Chapter Notes - Chapter 1: Health Psychology, Experimental Psychology, Psychology Today

• School: York University
• Department: Psychology
• Course: PSYC 1010
• Professor: Myriam Mongrain

Document Summary

Psychology - greek term -psyche (soul) -logos (the study of a subject) Parents of psychology - philosophy and physiology. Structuralism: based on the notion that the task of psychology is to analyze consciousness into its basic elements and investigate how these elements are related. Structuralists wanted to identify and examine the fundamental components of conscious experience, such as sensations, feelings and images. Most of their work concerned sensation and perception in vision hearing and touch. Structuralists depend on the method of inspection - the careful, systematic self observation of one"s own conscious experience. Functionalism: based on the belief that psychology should investigate the function/ purpose of consciousness, rather than its structure. Natural selection: heritable characteristics that provide a survival or reproductive advantage are more likely than alternative characteristics to be passed onto subsequent generations and thus come to be selected over time. Structuralism missed the real nature of conscious experience. Consciousness: consists of a continuous flow of thoughts.